Crazy Horny Mud Truckers

During the day, they drive their 4x4s in frenetic off-road races and dive headfirst into globby pits of thick mud. At night, they venture out into the woods to get drunk, get naked, and go wild. This is the world of the crazy horny mud truckers.

Documentary photographer David Horton discovered the extreme mud racing event known as 4×4 Proving Grounds by chance, while working on a different project in Maine, USA. Since then he’s been visiting the event each year, immersing himself in the community and documenting this subculture from the inside out. “It’s kind of like a baptism-by-mud,” he tells VICE. “As far as we could tell, as long as you didn’t kill somebody, it was pretty much anything goes.”

We caught up with David to chat about the culture of mud trucking, the people it attracts, and what happens out in the woods when the sun goes down.

VICE: Hi, David. So, what’s your story as a photographer?
David: I’ve been photographing my whole life, but then I got into street photography around 2012. I was into street photography pretty heavily for a decade or more, and then my interest became long-term projects. Street photography is quick encounters on the street, but the projects that resonated with me were ones where I could get embedded in a community and gain the respect and acceptance required to go deeper. That’s the kind of work I do now.

How did you discover the mud truckers?
It was actually by chance. A friend and fellow photographer, Fadi BouKaram, came to the States to do a cross-country road trip to all the towns named Lebanon in the US. There were around 50 of them. When he was on the East Coast he stayed with me and we went to a few Lebanons, and one was Lebanon, Maine. When we arrived someone we met said, “Oh you must be here for the mud races?” We asked what it was, and that’s how it all began.

Did you go immediately or return at a later date?
Oh, we went. We were meant to go to another town named Lebanon after, but we never made it. When you find something like this, you just hunker down and stay for the whole thing. We walked in and started taking photos, but very quickly the security people stopped us. So we found the organizers, one of which was a woman named Brenda, explained who we were and what we were doing, and she said, “Absolutely!” From there, we had carte blanche. It was nuts.

What is exactly going on at these mudslinging bonanzas?
They’re doing off-road racing in 4x4s and doing these mud runs, but we kinda weren’t interested in that. What I was really interested in was the subculture of it. What I discovered was that these events run all the way down the East Coast—from Maine to Florida and trickling into Texas—and these people go from one event to the next. They arrive with tents or trailers; one guy even brought a hot tub.

They race, yeah, but aside from the racing, there are these huge mud pits that they create. They hose down the pits for weeks and weeks, and then they get a kick out of seeing if they can drive through them. Most of the time they can’t and they have these huge military vehicles that go in and chain ‘em up and pull ‘em out. This is what they do for fun.

From your photos, it seems to have an almost ritualistic element.
There is that component as well. It’s kind of like a baptism by mud. There was this one guy I met the last time I was there, and he shows up every year in a complete tuxedo with a cowboy hat and just dives into the mud pit and swims around—that’s his ritual.

What happens when the sun goes down?
The night parties are basically complete insanity. As far as we could tell, as long as you didn’t kill somebody, it was pretty much anything goes. There’s organized concerts with bands and people build these huge bonfires. But the really interesting stuff happens at the private parties that occur out in the woods, in the camping areas. They build these stages and there’s pole dancers, and, as you can probably see, the pole dancing goes to far extremes.

What’s really fascinating is it’s not totally male-driven. There’s a lot of male energy around, but the women seem just as aggressive and into it as the men. Mud is everywhere; they’re throwing mud at the girls and the girls are throwing it back at the guys. They also have this term “Dump ‘em out!”—when they yell that, all the girls lift their shirts and the guys do it too.

Did you see much security?
There are no police there, but there’s private security, one of whom is a war veteran. He comes up from New York and his job is to make sure nothing horrible happens, break up fights, etc. But surprisingly, for as wild as things get, there really isn’t much violence. I only saw fights break out a couple of times. There’s heavy drinking and I’m sure heavy drugs, but it’s all pretty well contained. However, the racing is intense, four-wheel, fast-going stuff, and people die. I was told that one of the trucks flipped once and a teenager was killed. So it’s not without things going wrong.

It strikes me as a distinctly American celebration.
It’s 100 percent American. That’s what drew me in. I can’t imagine too many other places having an event like this. What’s also fascinating is that they stand on a side of the political spectrum that I don’t, but I’m quite fascinated by it. People bring their families, a lot of it is about community, friendship, and all those things. So the values are aligned with mine, even if the political views are not. So that was interesting for me: getting accepted into this community and being a witness to something I wouldn’t otherwise get to see.

Talk me through some of your shots. I find the one of the man completely covered in mud to be especially spiritual.
That happened on the very first visit with my friend from Lebanon. This guy was pretty wasted at the time, and he was in the middle of these trucks going in and out of the mud, and he just dove headfirst into the pit.

What about this one of the teenagers in the back of the truck?
That was during one of the parades throughout the grounds. Everyone is very proud of their vehicles, and they drive them around in loops and circles at sunset, and everyone is hollering. I climbed into the back of one of the trucks and got this photo of these kids.

How do you actually go about shooting an event like this?
The days are very long. The event is three days’ long, and I start at about 11AM and shoot nearly consistently until around 4AM. Due to the size of the grounds, I walk about 10-12 miles each day. I shoot only with wide angle fixed lenses (24 and 28mm)—I don’t use telephoto lenses at all. It’s very important to me to get close, really close, and this allows the viewer to feel like they are in it. The additional benefit is that the riders and people at the event can see that I’m completely invested. As close as anything seems in my images is as close I actually am. It’s a little dangerous in an event like this; you have to have eyes in the back of your head. But again, people see and respect the commitment, and that helps enormously with the access I receive from the community.